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Author Biography

Chris is a Louisiana Women in Media Lifetime Achievement Award winner, having spent 40 years as a journalist, 22 of those as a city magazine publisher. She began her career as a feature story writer, then editor, for The Advocate, Baton Rouge’s daily newspaper. She left the newspaper in 1989 to create her own city magazine, InRegister. During more than two decades of chronicling social and cultural issues for the publication and its website, Chris was recognized by Sales and Marketing Executives International as “Marketer of the Year" in 1991, by the Public Relations Association of Louisiana as “Communicator of the Year” in 1994 and by Baton Rouge Business Report as one of the “Most Influential Women in Business: in 1999. Chris also brought her magazine’s pages to life as host of her own weekly television show, "InRegister on the Air," on Baton Rouge’s ABC affiliate from 1995-1997.
In 2009, she sold her publication, seeking new avenues for her restless creative nature. Following a career-long path of entrepreneurship, Chris has conceived, owned and marketed a number of businesses, including her latest, RussoRoss, a boutique with business partner Susan Ross. She and her husband, Bill Blackwood, live in Baton Rouge. Together, they have seven children and six grandchildren..

Book Review

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

My Brother's Keeper by Chris Russo Blackwood is one man’s story of 'A Thirty-Year Quest to Bring Two Killers to Justice.' Ted Kergan was launched into action from the minute he was told his brother was missing and was presumed to be dead. Two people suspected of the murder – a young prostitute and her older boyfriend – are in his sights, but he had no idea of how long it would take him to bring them to justice. Nobody could locate the body of his brother and nobody was talking. Because of this, the DA didn’t want to bring charges, leaving Kergan to track the killers as they traveled from New Orleans to Las Vegas. Almost thirty years after he started, Kergan got the break he had been waiting for and the killers could finally be brought to justice in a trial that ended in a dramatic conclusion, with a diary written by one of them as the star witness.

My Brother’s Keeper: A Thirty-Year Quest to Bring Two Killers to Justice by Chris Russo Blackwood is a fascinating read. This is a heart-wrenching story in many respects, but it is also a tale of courage and relentless determination. We know who did it and, in this story, we get to see the victim as his brother Ted sees him; we get to witness first hand the grit and determination of Ted as he seeks justice on his brother's behalf. This is one of those stories that brings it home to you how easy it is for people to be failed by the justice system. Although this story had a positive outcome, it is one that should have happened years before, given the evidence that the police had. The research that has gone into this book is second to none and Chris Russo Blackwood has written a truly gripping account, a real page-turner that I defy any fan of true crime to put down before they have finished it.